


Perspectives

by FlightOfInsanity



Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, an exercise in points of view, spoilers for the mission "Last Rites" if you haven't played it I suppose
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-11 00:50:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7868707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story told from a series of perspectives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Guardian

There was no part of this mission she liked. The idea of using a soul crystal to “become ascendant” sounded like a wild shot in the dark at best, and a disaster waiting to happen at worst. If the missions kept going the way they had been, it was a disaster _bound_ to happen.

She’d almost died just trying to get a shard of the crystal from the moon. Locked in the tunnels, hounded by Hive and Taken, cut off from the Vanguard and the Tower. The mission should have been a relatively easy one – get in, grab it, get out, and shoot anything that moves – and she’d ended up alone in the dark with only her Ghost for company. Naturally the next step of this harebrained scheme was to sneak in to an even more sinister Hive complex – one that Oryx would almost certainly be observing – to steal part of Crota’s soul right from under their noses.

There was no way this plan was going to go right.

Somehow the Hive hadn’t noticed a tomb husk floating across the ground on its own. Somehow they hadn’t noticed the deafening howling of the massive doors as they hauled themselves open. It had been loud enough to leave the Guardian’s ears ringing, but the Knight on the steps some 20 feet away hadn’t even flinched. In the Cosmodrome once she’d stumbled on a hunk of broken concrete and the quiet sound of her gloved hand hitting the ground had been enough to alert a nearby Knight to her presence. But this one hadn’t noticed the doors?

She hurried through the narrow gap in the doors and down the hall to the left, wanting to get the mission over as quickly as possible.

“Do you think they heard that?” Ghost asked.

The Guardian’s mouth pulled into a thin line, but she didn’t reply. She had no doubt they had heard it. The echoes were still chasing them down the hall, mixing unpleasantly with the wailing song they were following.

Eris gave them more vague instructions, but she paid little attention. The object they were after was almost certainly the one out in the open, surrounded by what looked to be Wizards. She carefully hurried up the curving staircases and onto the edge of the arching bridge.

Very slowly, very carefully, she made her way over to the hovering crystal. She trusted Cayde-6. She did not trust the cloaking. It had already failed them once and she quietly prayed this time would be different.

Up close, what she had assumed to be Wizards looked to be more than that. Eris had called them Deathsingers and the name fit. The creatures floated, almost serene, around the crystal but something about them screamed of danger. All the Knights and Ogres scattered elsewhere were nothing compared to these three, the Guardian could tell that much. Their wailing song echoed through her chest and set her on edge. She wanted to run.

She crept closer, edging into the fog, hoping she didn’t disturb its cascading swirls and give herself away. The crystal tucked into her pockets thrummed with some sort of energy and began to grow cold. The fog pulled in toward her instead of billowing away as it had been doing.

Her Ghost must have noticed.

“How much do we need to pass as an Ascendant Hive?”

“Only a taste,” Eris replied. “But steal all you can.”

The Guardian scowled and sighed through her nose. Hopefully the Deathsingers couldn’t intercept their communications.

The fog grew brighter and began to glow around her limbs. If it kept up, it wouldn’t matter if the cloaking held. She snuck a glance at the Deathsingers – so far they seemed oblivious, but she edged back a step. Surely they had enough by now?

With no warning the cloaking failed. The fog hissed away, leaving her fully exposed. Her gaze snapped up toward the Deathsingers, now fully aware of her presence and staring directly at her, their wailing replaced with deadly silence.

“Something’s wrong. We’re exposed!” Ghost sounded worried and strangely garbled.

One of the Deathsingers shifted – a curious tilt of its masked head – and all three vanished. No sound, no fight. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a Knight vanish as well. She had a brief moment to be confused before she heard the shriek of Taken arriving.

Cayde and Eris were arguing on the comms – Eris stressing about the soul; Cayde stressing about leaving. Ghost responded in a panic that they couldn’t go anywhere.

Trapped again.

“Stay alive!” Ghost shouted in her ear, still sounding distorted. Whatever had corrupted their feeds was directly affecting it and it sounded more afraid than she’d ever heard.

The Guardian ran, boosting herself over a group of Taken, not bothering to shoot them yet. She needed somewhere to hide. Somewhere the Taken couldn’t easily flank her. She briefly thought about making a break for the doors, but even if she made it out (assuming the door was still open) the room beyond had even less cover. If they still couldn’t transmat, she’d never be able to make it up the vertical shaft they’d jumped down.

A nearby door offered some semblance of safety and she ducked into the room. There was another entrance to the room further down the wall, but it would have to work. She poked her head around the corner and took out the nearest Taken before tossing a grenade at a more distant group.

Hiding behind the doorframe she reloaded and did a quick inventory – four rifle magazines; fourteen shotgun rounds; three rockets. So far nothing had drained her light the way the echo on the Dreadnaught had, so she had grenades and her super if needed. Ghost could synthesize bullets from her kills, but they would synth outside the room unless she let the Taken into the room.

A bolt of energy hissed by her head – a hobgoblin had gotten onto a platform outside and was shooting down at her. She fired three shots back and rolled out of the way as its energy flew at her.

“Ghost, any progress?”

“Still corrupted,” it replied, voice still laced with static. “Keep fighting.”

A nervous laugh escaped her as she took out more Taken loitering outside the door. Her radar flashed an urgent red and she changed weapons as she spun to face a group of thrall who had found the second door. Four rapid shotgun bursts echoed in the small space and a quick knife strike dispatched the last. She shoved more cartridges into the gun as fast as she could and looked up as she caught a distorted mirage in her peripheral vision.

“Dammit.”

A minotaur had come up the stairs unnoticed, its heat mirage outline barely giving it away, and was coming through the door. She launched herself back and away to get space to work. Her radar flashed an insistent red again and she glanced over her shoulder.

Minotaurs.

“ _Dammit._ ”

She backed against the wall midway between the two half-visible creatures and called up her bow, firing the mass of void energy at the column in the center of the small space. It stuck and snared the minotaurs and a handful of smaller Taken that had snuck in. There was no safe way to take them all out with the angry, stuck minotaurs blocking each door. She pulled out her rocket launcher and leapt into the air, hoping to avoid most of the blast and fired both loaded rockets at the ground. The detonation destroyed the nearest Taken, her anchor transferring the energy to the rest. The shockwave threw her into the wall and she fell hard on the floor.

“Guardian!” Ghost shouted.

“’m okay,” she grunted as she stumbled back to her feet. She hurt and she was afraid, but she was still alive.

The room was, for the moment, free of Taken. A few psions hovered around the nearest door and she tossed her grenade at them. They scattered and it detonated uselessly on the floor.

She slammed her last rocket into her launcher and flinched hard as Eris’ voice suddenly boomed from nowhere and everywhere at once.

“ _Guardian! **Come with me!**_ ”

Eris continued shouting an incantation in a language the Guardian didn’t understand and she waited for something to happen. Seconds passed and she pulled her rifle back out as the Taken grew closer.

Something grabbed her around the middle and she shouted in surprise and alarm as she felt her body fold around that point. It felt like something was trying to turn her inside out. Just as quickly as the sensation had come it was gone and she felt something shove her in the back. She stumbled as her feet hit solid ground and she jumped away from the source.

There was nothing there.

It was quiet.

She looked around. They were outside, in the open chamber. The Hive gone and the massive doors shut on the Taken. Her weapon dropped as a shaky cry of relief fell from her lips.

“You pulled us out,” Ghost said. Its voice was clear again.

“One of Toland’s tricks,” Eris said, on the comms again. She sounded exhausted. “There is nothing I fear more than the Dark, but I _will not_ lose another Guardian.”

As much as she wanted to be upset with Eris for sending them down here in the first place, for making them stay near the Deathsingers longer, the Guardian felt an intense wave of gratitude. She would have to thank Eris when they returned to the Tower.

“You’ve imprisoned the last whisper of Crota’s soul,” Eris continued. “It is left to you now. Find Oryx on the Dreadnaught. Destroy him”

Eris closed her communications and the Guardian turned her attention to Ghost. “Do we have transmat lock?”

“We do,” Ghost confirmed.

“Let’s get out of here.”


	2. Cayde-6

_It’s fine. It’s fine. It’s going to be fine._

Cayde repeated the mantra in his head for what was probably the thousandth time since the Guardian had taken off. They were only trying to stealthily raid the funeral of the son of the most evil being they’d encountered and steal part of said son’s soul. Of course it would be fine.

The ship’s telemetry showed the Guardian was nearing their transmat point. He tapped the desk and the communication channel opened to the ship.

“Okay. You’ve got the crystal. All you have to do now is fill it with Crota’s soul,” he said. It sounded like a perfectly simple plan. “The Hive are in the middle of some kind of funeral, so—“

“ _Not_ a funeral,” Eris interrupted. “A _death ceremony_. Crota’s essence is being prepared for the next realm.”

It sounded like she was irritated they hadn’t already known the semantic differences between “funeral” and “death ceremony.” Maybe she was still angry about her ship. Probably both.

“Right. So when you get to this funeral—“ Cayde pointedly ignored the glare shot at him from across the table. “—Oryx will be watching close. Use Rasputin’s cloak to slip past the Taken. Find Crota’s soul, wrap it up, and get out.”

A perfectly simple plan.

The ship reported a successful end to its jump and the successful transmat of the Guardian to the surface. There was a brief lapse in communications as the link switched from a direct connection to a relay. Status lights winked from green to red and back to green and Cayde breathed an internal sigh of relief – at least they still had contact.

He drummed his fingers impatiently on the tabletop as the visual feed stubbornly refused to display anything but black. Eris looked disgusted at the unnecessary noise but he ignored her as he flicked impatiently at the projector. A large white shape slid into view and he realized there wasn’t an issue with the feed – the room where the Guardian had landed was just really dark.

The Guardian waited as a bridge formed out of fog and floating tiles.

“Where exactly are we headed?”

Eris spoke up before Cayde could respond. “When the Deathsingers begin their song, you will know we are close.”

He stared at her for a moment, incredulous. Could a person get any more vague?

“What she’s _trying_ to say is that she doesn’t know. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”

“And I will try not to step on his head,” Eris hissed.

Definitely still mad about her ship.

The view screen showed the Guardian was moving again. She’d made it across the bridge and into a very odd, incredibly hazy hallway. It was too bright and distorted for him to see anything useful.

“Stay out of sight. We need you back alive,” he said quietly. “You have the frequency, Ghost?”

“And your… modifications. We’ll be ready” it replied. The hesitation caused a jolt of worry in the back of Cayde’s mind. They’d already had one close call with the cloaking, but these were brand new codes and brand new tech.

It would be fine.

“Then move quietly and unseen… like death.”

The Guardian’s ghost sighed and Cayde almost smiled. Eris was a lot like a Warlock in that she almost never gave anyone a straight answer, instead giving a riddle or a metaphor or something else equally cryptic. If you could get through the maze of unclear references she usually had a wealth of knowledge to offer. It was getting through the verbal maze that made her difficult to work with, especially in high-stress situations. Like this one.

The pair were in a lesser-used Vanguard room – a small conference room just off the main war room. It had everything the war room had, but with an actual door. Most of the Vanguard’s work was done out in sight of any visitor to the Tower but operations that had a real chance of going very wrong very fast were run out of sight. They had to keep up appearances after all, and it wouldn’t be very good for morale if the public saw an entire fire team wink off the map.

Cayde would have been perfectly happy running this mission on his own, but Zavala had shut that down long ago. Both Zavala and Ikora had their own matters to attend to and since he wasn’t allowed to do things unsupervised for the foreseeable future their compromise was to have Eris sit in. Though he had a feeling she would have been there regardless of whether or not she’d been asked.

The Guardian’s feed went to a sudden black and Cayde had to stop himself from immediately asking if they were still there. The screen resolved again a moment later and showed the Guardian in an empty hallway. Their Ghost activated the cloaking and the Guardian’s hands and weapon disappeared from view. He let out something close to a sigh of relief and thought he heard something similar come from Eris, but her face still showed bitter irritation.

The Guardian hesitated in the doorway leading to the massive open space beyond. It was quiet, but Knights and Ogres prowled the stairways and platforms.

“Keep your distance,” Cayde said quietly. “They can’t see you, but they can still smell you. Eris can replace her ship; we can’t replace you.”

Eris shot him a look he assumed was more annoyance and he ignored it again, watching the feed as the Guardian carefully wove around the Hive warriors.

“Cross the chasm. Enter their world.”

They watched as the Guardian collected a tomb husk to complete the bridge across. Cayde’s fist clenched on the table as he watched the husk float, seemingly unaided, to the receptacle. It took and the bridge formed and he relaxed only slightly.

The Guardian made it across the bridge, through the remaining Hive, and up the final set of steps. The massive doors began to open as she approached. The groaning echo of the doors was loud enough to make him lunge for the volume control and must have been deafening to the Guardian. The feed swung around as the Guardian glanced over her shoulder and showed that not a single one of the Hive nearby were paying attention to the door.

Cayde glanced at Eris. “The Hive _can_ hear, right?”

She nodded once, slowly, before suddenly turning the volume on the feed back up. A grating series of screams came through.

“The Deathsingers! They are preparing Crota’s soul for the next realm. Follow their cry!”

The Guardian picked up her pace through the long hallway and Eris sat back. “It was just as this when I walked in the dark. Their wretched songs in the wind as Eriana fell…” She trailed off and seemed to get lost in her memories. Cayde wasn’t sure if he should say something or not.

“There are a _lot_ of tombs here,” Ghost remarked. “How do we find Crota’s?”

“You will know it when you see it,” Eris answered. More vague responses, but this time Cayde had to agree with her. Crota’s tomb was bound to either be the biggest or most guarded. Probably both, but it would be fine. They had the cloaking and it was holding up nicely and it would be _fine_.

With every step the Guardian took toward the billowing green smoke and the hovering Deathsingers Cayde felt his apprehension grow. He _hated_ this. Watching his Guardians as they put themselves directly in the line of fire and knowing he wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing if something went south. It was what the Guardians were created for, he knew that, but he hated it. He was their commander, he was the one who sent them to the gates of Hell, he was supposed to keep them safe.

“How much do we need to pass as an Ascendant Hive?” Ghost asked quietly.

“Only a taste,” Eris replied. “But steal all you can.”

Cayde wanted to tell the Guardian to get out of there as quickly as she could but he held his tongue. They would only have one chance to get through the rupture and this plan _had_ to work. As much as he wanted his Hunter out of danger, he knew they needed all they could get.

The display flashed and he went tense in panic – the Guardian was visible.

“Something’s wrong. We’re exposed!”

He lunged for the controls on the table, trying to force a transmat link. Status lights flickered green to red and back. The link connected and wavered and failed.

“Lock for transmat! _Get out of there!_ ”

“We must have Crota’s soul!” Eris reached out toward the controls and he smacked her hand away.

“They’ve got _enough_ ,” he snapped at her. “Lock for transmat, Ghost!”

“I can’t! Everything is—“

The line went silent with a garbled burst of static and the rest of the status lights flickered to red. His thoughts hitched and skipped a beat.

Silent. Gone. _Just like_ _Tevis_.

“Lost,” Eris mumbled.

No. _No._

This was _not_ going to end the same way.

He looked at the readouts in front of him again. Everything from the Guardian was red but her ship still reported a solid green, which meant… what? He hissed in frustration as Eris carried on quietly about loss and darkness and words he didn’t understand. If they could still communicate with the ship then whatever was jamming the Guardian’s signal had to be local – probably right in the same room with her. It was less than helpful, but he didn’t have much else.

“Could we jump her ship into it?” he asked, desperate for anything.

Eris laughed at him. A sharp and bitter sound that told him exactly what she thought of his idea.

“To what end? Fiery wreckage to light the surface of the moon?”

“We need to clear whatever is jamming her signal and she doesn’t have time for us to send reinforcements.”

“Your Guardian was out of time the moment she opened those doors.”

“I am not leaving another Hunter to die alone in the dark!” Cayde shouted.

“I warned you this would happen,” Eris said, the scathing bite gone from her voice. “I warned all of you.”

“ _I know_ ,” Cayde said. “I know, but now is not the time.” He opened a private link to Zavala, “I need a strike team – heavy hitters. Now.”

“They know why we were there. There will be nothing to recover.”

Cayde hissed and glared at Eris, throat lights flashing angrily. Part of him knew she was right – Oryx would be smart enough to know what they were planning. The Taken wouldn’t leave the crystal or the Guardian behind to be found.

“Help or leave,” he snapped.

She stiffened and stared him down, expression unreadable. Several uncomfortable seconds passed before Eris pulled a tattered book from her robes and slammed it on the table. She flipped it open to a seemingly random page covered in scribbled writing and more than a few disconcerting smudges. Bracing herself on the tabletop she began quietly chanting something he couldn’t understand. As she chanted, her voice grew louder and her Hive eyes glowed brighter. Cayde took a step back, hand drifting to rest on his weapon. He didn’t trust Eris; didn’t trust Toland’s magic.

She gasped and yelled, “ _Guardian! Come with me!_ ”

She shouted a few more lines of repeated incantation and suddenly dropped forward, elbows slamming heavily into the table. She took several deep, heavy breaths.

“You pulled us out.”

That was the Guardian’s Ghost.

Cayde snapped his gaze to the displays so fast it set off strain warnings in his head. The lights were going green again.

“One of Toland’s tricks,” Eris said from the side. She was still leaning heavily on the table, not looking at the displays. “There is nothing I fear more than the Dark, but I will not lose another Guardian.”

She paused a moment and continued. “You’ve imprisoned the last whisper of Crota’s soul. It is left to you now. Find Oryx on the Dreadnaught. Destroy him.”

Cayde didn’t take his eyes from the readings until the ship reported it was safely back in a jump, Guardian on board. He sent her a quick set of instructions and a link to a resupply. To Zavala, he sent a quick message requesting the strike team be put on standby, preferably close to Saturn. Just in case.

“’Will not lose another Guardian’, huh?”

Eris sighed wearily and turned baleful eyes on him. She flipped the tattered little book closed and stowed it away again. She left the room without another word.

Cayde sighed and dropped heavily into chair he’d shoved away from the table earlier. The Guardian’s flight would take some time and he would need all of it to prepare himself for this next mission.


End file.
